The main reason for using prescribed medicinal cannabis was chronic pain, consistent with other prescription data from the Therapeutics Goods Administration, which approves prescription applications and tracks conditions being treated. People using illicit products were more likely to be treating mental health or sleep conditions.
Despite the large increase in patients receiving prescribed products in the last two years, only 24 percent of prescribed patients agreed that the current model for accessing medicinal cannabis was easy or straightforward.
A barrier identified by most respondents was the cost of accessing medicinal cannabis, with an average cost of $79 per week, highlighting the need to address cost of treatment for patients.
People using illicit medical cannabis also cited an inability to find medical practitioners who are willing to prescribe, consistent with findings from a recent 2020 Senate Inquiry into the barriers to patient access to medicinal cannabis in Australia. More work is required to enhance health provider education regarding medicinal cannabis.
“There are advantages in using prescribed medical cannabis over illicit cannabis,” said Professor Iain McGregor, Academic Director of the Lambert Initiative for Cannabinoid Therapeutics . “These include safer routes of administration, greater certainty of access, and better communication between patients and doctors. Patients can also be informed of the exact THC/CBD composition, which is an ongoing problem with illicit product. There should be further efforts to transition patients from illicit to regulated, quality-controlled, cannabis products.”
The survey is the latest in the CAMS series, the largest national survey of medicinal cannabis users conducted every two years. It was undertaken as a partnership between the Discipline of Addiction Medicine in conjunction with the Lambert Initiative for Cannabinoid Therapeutics at the University of Sydney.
Source link
